English

The adelic closure of triangle groups

Number Theory 2025-09-12 v2 Geometric Topology

Abstract

Motivated by questions arising from billiard trajectories in the regular nn-gon, McMullen defined a pair of functions κ\kappa and δ\delta on the cusps cc of the corresponding triangle group Δn\Delta_n inside SL2(O)\mathrm{SL}_2({\mathcal{O}}), where O=Z[ζn+ζn1]{\mathcal{O}} = \mathbf{Z}[\zeta_n+ \zeta^{-1}_n]. McMullen asks for which nn these functions are congruence, that is, when they only depend on the image of the cusp cP1(O)c \in \mathbf{P}^1(\mathcal{O}) in P1(O/d)\mathbf{P}^1(\mathcal{O}/d) for some integer dd. In this note, we answer McMullen's questions. We obtain our results by computing the exact closure of ΔnSL2(O)\Delta_n \subset \mathrm{SL}_2({\mathcal{O}}) inside SL2(O^)\mathrm{SL}_2(\widehat{{\mathcal{O}}}), where O^\widehat{{\mathcal{O}}} is the profinite completion of O{\mathcal{O}}.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2407.20374,
  title  = {The adelic closure of triangle groups},
  author = {Frank Calegari},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.20374},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

This is the (lightly) revised final version; to appear in Groups, Geometry, and Dynamics

R2 v1 2026-06-28T17:57:30.145Z